February Sewing

The month is almost over!  I'd actually been sewing a bit - mostly in 15 minute increments when I need a break from school-work.  I actually set a timer, I have to - otherwise I'd get lost in fabric and lose time.

Would you like to see what I've been working on?

Block Lotto for February

Quilter's choice of Heart Block is "winter sunset" colors.  Lovely blocks.  I made two and donated them.

Orca Bay
a mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.  The mystery's done now, but I'm still plugging away at the steps.  I love her quilts, but my-oh-my all the tiny pieces.

I even made up a song - sung to the melody of the chorus of "Elenor Rigby" by the Beatles. 

Ahhhh

look at all the tiny pieces, 

do-do-do-do-do -do -do

ah, look at all the tiny pieces,

where do they all belong?

yes, I know, I'm weird.

back to sewing

Liz's Baby

A quilt for my sister-in-law, who expecting her first baby.  She wanted a uninex (they're waiting to find out) quilt in grays, greens, yellows, blues...  It supposed to be a surprise, but here's a sneak peek.

Sew We Quilt tutorial -  I'm totally excited!  I'm going to be guest posting on Friday with a new Choose Your Own Adventure pattern.  I've never guest posted anywhere!  

Cotton Robin - No pictures, since it's a surprise.  I had a plan for the border I need to put on the block I was sent - drew it out, built a test mini-block and then realized that the math wasn't going to work without the block being bigger than it's supposed to be.  So, on to plan B.  

So, that's my month of sewing.
Looks like I accomplished quite a bit when I put it all together in one month.

WIP Wednesday

Since we've moved I haven't started any big new projects.
My sewing closet is overflowing with almost completed tops, tops waiting to be sandwiched, and blocks waiting to be set into tops.

I've told myself I need to make a dent in getting them completed before I can move on to starting a new big quilt.  That hasn't stopped me from playing with little toppers and runners, but I refuse to start anything big until I get most of these done.

 

 Here's my list of tops that are hanging in the closet:

• Grandma's Vase of Love - This one's been gifted and she loves it.  She gave it back to me so I could add a sleeve for hanging....
• Baby Boy Quilt - 1/2 quilted.  I've never blogged about this one...It was to be for a friend's new baby, but the baby was born in March....so he's now... oh... 6 months old?
• String X's  - yup.  top done. not quilted.
• One-Patch - a quilt made from 2" scrap squares, that I use as leaders and enders.  It's still in progress...
• Verna Runner - A super cute spring runner I made from verna scraps that a Fabric Fairy sent me.  Waiting to be sandwiched.
• Please Don't Eat the Flowers - A runner of my own design that I hope to share with you, soon.   I think it would make an awesome Christmas project....
• Crazy Mom Quilts Round and Round Quilt Along - I actually worked on it a bit a couple of weeks ago.  I'm at the last step...
• Carolina Christmas Two - A Quiltville Mystery from 2 years ago.  It made enough blocks for two smaller quilts, the first one has been done and gifted, this one is just waiting to be sandwiched.
• Around the World - A mixed flannel/cotton top.  Waiting for sandwiching.
• Cool Braids - I've got the braids as long as I want them.  I've trimmed one....

That makes 10 Works in Progress.

Haven't worked on any of those this week.

I did work on Stella's Quilt.  It's an original design that I'm very proud of.

I'm hand sewing the binding on... ALMOST done!!!

I'm linking up to Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday

W.i.P. Wednesday

What a week!

Miss Mae had a birthday - (she's 9!) She picked out the fabric for her birthday dress - one I would have NEVER chosen. 

Now, I'm glad I bought extra, I think it would make a great focal print for a quilt.

Her favorite part is the orange flower.

Nine.

Am I really old enough to have a nine-year-old?

When did that happen?

If I stop feeding her, will she stop growing? 

I get teary just thinking about it.

Time to change the subject.

sewing.

bee blocks.

Green and purple strings for Eileen.

    

Lovin' these colors!

I have 2 sets for Jen - I'm in 2 different bees with her.

First, we have a block that completely defeated me.

I admit it.

I'm baffled.

The fabric won.

I'm waving the white flag.

She wanted blocks based on this waverunner quilt.

I'm not thrilled with how they turned out, but I hope they're acceptable.

I felt like I was forcing the fabric into a shape it didn't want to be in.

I couldn't get them to lay flat for nothing.

I followed the directions and everything. 

*sigh*

The second set for Jen was much more fun.

Wonky quarter logs using this tutorial from Quilt Dad.

    

Pretty.   Have I mentioned that purples are my favorite colors?

And, my work in progress.

My very first truly original design.

I designed it for the Solids Challenge, but wanted to test it before I started on the "real" one.

I am pleased to present

"Following the Leader"

I can't decide - does it need a border?  or will a contrasting binding be enough?

Currently it's about 50" square.... 

This one's for niece Skylar.

She's Muffin's age and in love with pink.

Her mom, however, is growing tired of all the pink.  I thought this was a nice compromise.

Pink without being overwhelmingly princess-y pink.

what do you think?

 

Pure Hexagons...Pure Craziness

Before Christmas I started building a hexagon quilt for a gift.

I used Jaybird Quilts hexagon quilt along as a guide.

I even purchased a jelly roll.  (since it was going to be a gift, I could ratioanlize the cost.)

*sigh*

I chose the Pure line by Sweetwater.

I played with the strips for hours before finally sewing and cutting them into triangles.

I got them all lined up on the floor, set out exactly how I wanted them to be.

It took hours.

I piled them neatly into little stacks, numbered and ready to be sewed.

I then managed to dump all my little stacks all over the floor.

On Christmas Eve Eve.

I'm glad the kids were sleeping because I sure didn't say "Golly, gosh darn!"

Yeah, I didn't give that one as a gift.

Last week I finally got around to re-sorting and organizing them again.

Then I PINNED them into little numbered piles.

and sewed 'em together.

Another top done!

Into the "QUILT ME" closet.

progress.

I had a few leftover hexagons and I played with them and came up with a pillow

It's a hexagon made of hexagons! 

It was a challenge.

It's done.

and I like it.

String X's

I've finished the top!

It was supposed to have more blocks, but I opted to finish what I had. 

It's a smaller quilt - but I like how its looking.  Totally scrappy. 

It's now hanging in the closet, waiting for quilting.

Aren't Grandmas Great?

A million years ago when I was a kid, my great-grandma made me this:

She actually made two, one for me and one for my sister.

Exactly the same, except mine has yellow binding, hers has purple.

(cause when you're eleven, purple is no longer cool)

Hand quilted. 

Itty bitty stitches.

Anyhoo, fast forward to a couple of months ago when I decided I wanted to make a quilt like it.  I didn't want to purchase a pattern and the only ones I could find online were paper-pieced, and had more of a wedge look to the rings, mine has square-ish bits.
I was stuck.

My grandma found out I was looking for the pattern, emailed her quilty friend that she had given all the quilting books to, and 6 weeks later I have the pattern. 

Aren't grandmas great?

The pattern is from "Country Quilts in a Weekend" by Fran Roen.  It was published in 1991.

With a title like that I would have NEVER found it on my own.  EVER.

I looked it up, Amazon doesn't even have it.

Upon reading the pattern, I was shocked to find out it was strip pieced.

using 2 1/2" wide strips.

super simple.

I'm working on a tree skirt using the pattern's templates and construction method.

I've got all the arches cut and I wanted to see what it was going to look like and get a sense of how big it will end up being.  about 45" square.

I love things that look difficult but really aren't.

Don't you?

Trades

My most amazing friend Kim redid my old sewing table and my girls' dresser in trade for a quilt.  (I love trades!!!)  The dresser and sewing table look wonderful.  You can see before and after pics here.

She requested a red, white and black quilt with an asian/ modern feel.

Here's my final plan.  I had to redo it about a billion times until I was happy with it. Then, before I started to cut the fabric I decided to double check my plan and found I had goofed on the math. I redid the whole idea. I'm short about 1/2 yard of red for the inner border. (Oh darn, I'll have to go buy fabric.)

Here's the fabric I chose.

Now I'm ready to get started.  I hope it's modern/asian enough!

Crazy Mom Quilts Quilt Along #5 Update

I'm a bit behind in this quilt along.  I just finished Week 6.  Monday she'll post week 9 instuctions.  Oh well.  I'm having a good time.  It is a really intense quilt to work on. It's been a bit difficult, all the segments pieced together end up being longer than the sashing strips, so I've learned a few things.

1. starch is a good thing. by starching the crud out of the segmented strips, they don't stretch as much.
2. an accurate 1/4" is totally important.  mine are pretty good, with only a couple in each strip that aren't accurate, but every 1/8" adds up.
3. not a project to work on when the kids are awake.  nope.  can't concentrate at all.

It is going to a great looking quilt when it's done.  I love the bright colors and the white.

Works in Progress

It's Friday!  Yeah!!! I made it through a completely crappy week.  I won't go into it in this post, maybe later.  I decided to open up my cupboard and take stock of my Works in Progress.  I have three 12" x 12" pull out drawers that are the perfect size for storing current projects.

Underneath the drawers is a handy hanging-file slide-out thingy.

Drawer 1

Current Block Lotto Blocks

Carolina Christmas

Current Block Swap Block

Drawer 2

Random String X's

Pinwheel Sampler Quilt-Along

Drawer 3

Two Baby Quilts - for the Twins.

What are all these projects, you ask?

I'm gonna go through each one, in their own post, over the next week or so.

Scrappy Log Cabins

I recently began working on a new production.  I'm stage managing at The VLT, we're putting on The Clean House.  During rehearsals, while the director is "directing"  there's very little for me to do.  I decided to work on a project out of a book I got for Christmas.  It's paper pieced, which makes it ideal for handwork.  The blocks finish at 6" so they fit nicely in a quart sized ziplock in my purse.  The project needs 88 of these little blocks, I wonder if I'll get them all done during these rehearsals.

I went through and prepped a bunch of strips, all pinned together, so there's really no thinking involved at all!

List One

Totally busy, got tons on my plate and I can't focus on finishing ANYTHING.  Very frustrating.  I figured a list or two would help...True sign of a procrastinator..make lists instead of actual working on anything.

List One - Unfinished Sewing Projects

1. Miss Mae's Quilt - quilted and bound
2. The Boy's Quilt - borders added, quilted and bound
3. Muffin's Quilt - quilted and bound
4. Baby Quilt Tops - My sister just had twins, and I'm making the tops for their quilts.  Totally adorable.
5. Baby Gown - This one's super simple, will take maybe an hour to finish, just need to attach the top to the skirt, I've already finished one.
6. Carolina Christmas - I'm on Step 5 out of 7 - getting close!
7. Hanging Dishtowels - These were supposed to be Christmas gifts, but didn't get them done, now they're waiting...
8. Hugs - This is a string X quilt that I started, no real pattern - Just sort of followed a few tutorials - kind of.
9. Scrappy Log Cabins - These are 1" strips, paper pieced...Lost of fun.

That's it for now...later, another list!

Muffin's Trip Around The World

I finished the top top for the quilt I'm making for Muffin. I used Bonnie Hunt's pattern for Trip Around the World. Except I redid most of the math to make it finish the size I wanted, which is much smaller than her version. Muffin's four, so I hope its not too baby-ish. I was stash-busting again. It's all quilting cotton except the pink stripe - it's flannel.

Holy Wonky Rails Batman!

This is the top of the quilt I'm making for The Boy. 

Debating on adding borders.  I found a pattern for a wonky rail quilt somewhere and I tweaked it.  Its kind of a stack-n-slash method.  The rails are a mis-mash of cotton flannel and regular cotton.  My goal was NOT to buy anything for it, but to work on De-Stashing my Stash.  I like it.  I hope he does.